The Next Friend Found
by ThuhJesheekuh
Summary: Jessie and Ian, Mario and Luigi and Peach's longlost siblings, go on a journey and find an old friend. Young author plus bad story idea equals Mary Sues! Read if you like laughing at bad stories.
1. Business as Usual

The Next Friend Found

Hullos! Is Selphie again, Lord of birds and socks. Hopefully, if you're reading this it means you read "The First Adventure" and are coming back for more. If that is the case, then squee and kudos to you. Loves ya. If you haven't read "The First Adventure" then I advise you to go back and read that first, otherwise you will be pretty confizzled.

I just wanted to catch everyone up before the story starts: Jessie and Ian were from Mushroom Kingdom, they disappeared when they were one year old and went through a bunch of other video game worlds and a small town that I actually live in, and finally they got back to their home in Mushroom Kingdom. They found each other at the Smash Bros. tourney, and then Jessie helped Ian try to find his family. But her brothers, Mario and Luigi, Yoshi, and Peach were all kidnapped and kept in his castle. Jessie and Ian go to save them, and find Ian's sister: Princess Toadstool! So they beat Bowser, yada yada yada, go home, Peach and Ian rule Mushroom Kingdom. I actually had them do Mario Party 2, but that too is really crappy and lame, so I'll just tell you the Jessie won (because she is my brainchild and because I copied it right out of the game I was playing) and now it's back to business as usual.

For anyone who forgot how the last story ended (and it _is_ important because the whole of this story is based off the fact that is established by those last few paragraphs) here it is real quick, and then I will shut up and get out of your way to let you read my story.

A little later that day, Jessie was looking at the pictures again. She found the picture of her, Ian, and the little girl and boy from before. Little girl and boy? "Wait a second," she said, "Who're they?" That is another story entirely...

Dun Dun Dun! Yeah, see? That's why it's important. This story is about that picture again.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything Mario-ified: the characters, world, etc. I own Jessie, Ian, and one other person in here, who will remain unnamed for the time being. I don't own "A Thousand Miles" or "Prince" or any Vanessa Carlton song for that matter. But "A Thousand Miles" really helped give me the idea for this story and for some reason I just like putting music in my fanfics. Oh, and just for the record, when it talks about musical instruments and stuff, I do not really know this stuff. You could probably call me a hypocrite when it comes to music because I don't know about the instruments or anything. So please don't get mad at me if you realize it talks stupidly about music.

I'm giving fair warning again: REVIEW! When you review I feel special, and when I feel special I don't feel wrathful. If you don't review, you _will_ pay and my birds or socks, or the minions of some of my friends, the lords of cows and monkeys, will come after you and make your life a living hell.

Now, ON WITH THE STORY!

Chapter 1: Business as Usual

Some time after the Mario Party, things went back to normal. Bowser went back to his castle and started thinking of new ways to take over Mushroom Kingdom. Peach went back to teaching Ian how to rule the Kingdom. Jessie went back to learning about Mushroom Kingdom. Mario and Luigi went back to one of their lesser-known hobbies: trying to make music for Mushroom Kingdom (notice all of those sentences ended in the word, "kingdom?").

One day while they were practicing, Jessie came out of her room for a break. Her brothers were in the living room with their instruments, playing one of their songs.

"What're you guys doing?" Jessie asked.

"We're getting back into practice. We haven't played since you came. Everything's been too hectic," Mario told her.

"Oh, can I watch?" she asked.

"Why not?" Luigi answered. They started playing again. Their music wasn't that bad, but it wasn't great. Finally Luigi said, "I think that's enough warm-up. Let's get to the real stuff." They started playing. After listening for a minute Jessie stood up and told them to stop.

"Okay, first off, you're lyrics are pretty good. The melody is good, but you _gotta_ work on the instruments," she advised them.

"What do you mean?" Luigi asked.

"You don't need to be playing it dead with an electric guitar," she told them, "You should try a regular guitar, it would sound better because you can distinguish the notes and hear the rhythm that the percussion sets up."

"Umm, okay?"

"Next, you don't have to both be singing at the same time. Probably you should let Mario sing lead and Luigi do back up. Duets at some points like in the chorus would be the way to go I think," she continued, "Can you try that?"

They nodded their heads and took up their instruments. They started playing. The singing definitely sounded better but, "Mario, you're not very good at the regular guitar, sorry."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"You're trying to do the same thing you do on the electric guitar and slur the notes together. The point of playing it on the regular guitar is to have the notes heard individually. You get what I'm saying?" she told him, "Try again."

They tried again.

"I can't do it," Mario said.

"Here, like this," Jessie said taking the guitar. She and Luigi played through the song.

"That sounded great!" Luigi said.

"Thanks," Jessie said handing the guitar toward Mario.

"Why don't you do it?" he offered.

"Me?" she asked, "Are you sure? I mean, this was you and Luigi's thing. I probably shouldn't have cut in, in the first place."

"We want to sound as good as we can, and since you're apparently the best, you should do it. Besides, I'm still singing lead," he said.

"Yeah, you can be in the group too. It'll be like a family thing," Luigi said.

"Cool," Jessie said and put the guitar back on. They played through with Mario singing and it was perfect.

"You gotta help us with our other songs too!" Luigi said.

"All right, but I'm gonna try to help Mario with the regular guitar too," Jessie told them.

"Why?"

"So we'll have a broader variety and we can have better sounding music," Jessie said.

"But what other instrument will you play? I thought this was all you played," Mario said.

"Heck no! I also play vibraphone, strings, keyboards, some woodwinds and brasses, and a little bit of percussion," Jessie told them.

"What don't you play then?" Mario joked.

"Bagpipe."

Later they were walking to Peach's castle. Peach and Ian were going to a smaller kingdom within Mushroom Kingdom to the east, called Sarasaland, to meet with the royals there for the first time in many years. Mario, Luigi, and Jessie were going to escort them to make sure that nothing happened, as it often did. When they got to the castle they found that Peach, Ian, and Toad were waiting with a carriage. Carriages in Mushroom Kingdom are pulled by a hired and trained yoshi and are only used by the royals and only when they are traveling long distances or in other special events, such as the return of the prince.

"You're pulling the carriage, Yoshi?" Jessie asked when she saw their good friend hooked up to the carriage.

"Over such a long distance, Peach wants as much protection as possible," Yoshi answered.

"Are we ready to go right now?" Mario asked them.

"Yeah, we're ready," Peach answered. Mario, Luigi, and Jessie put their camping gear in with Peach, Ian, and Toad as they got in the carriage and Yoshi started pulling with the Marios walking behind.

They left early in the morning and walked all day. Finally the sun began to dip below the horizon.

"Are we going to stop soon?" Jessie asked.

"Yeah, Wedding Hill is just half a mile off. We're going to stay there tonight," Mario answered.

About fifteen minutes later they were in a small town set around a tall hill. That night they stayed at the town inn. Jessie was talking to Yoshi.

"So we're just heading due east? You're not really sure where you'll end up?" Jessie asked.

"Well, I know where we're going for a while. But no one's been to Sarasaland in a long time so there's some stuff we don't really know about," Yoshi explained.

"So, we don't really know for sure what we'll be running into?" Jessie asked.

"Yeah, but that's why we're along, to protect the royal family from the unexpected," Yoshi replied.

"Well, we're not going to be prepared for the unexpected if we don't get some sleep, and you are pulling a carriage tomorrow," Jessie said. So they went to bed.

The next day they were on their way again. "So, how long is it going to take us to get there?" Ian asked.

"Assuming nothing too serious happens," Luigi answered, "We have about four or five days."

"Where're we stopping tonight?" Ian asked.

"What's it called again, Mario?" Luigi asked.

"We're not stopping in a town tonight, Luigi," Mario told him, "We're camping out on the edge of the jungle."

A while later they got to the jungle. "Is this where we're camping?" Ian asked.

Mario answered, "No, we're going through and camping on the other side."

All that day they were trekking through the jungle. They kept hearing snapping noises but never saw anything. "What's that snapping noise?" Jessie asked.

"Piranha plants," Toad answered.

"And you're not in the least bit worried?" she inquired.

"Well, the piranha plants are rooted in the ground and can't really go anywhere beyond their stem," Peach said, "So a while back a path was cleared of them."

"Oh, okay," Jessie said, "So, there's nothing to worry about?"

"Pretty much," Toad answered.

Later they could see a small clearing ahead. "Wait a sec, I don't remember that clearing," Mario said. A loud snoring sound was coming from somewhere in the clearing. "Why do I think I know that snore?" Mario asked himself. When they got to the clearing he found out: a large piranha plant that was not rooted to the ground was sleeping on the ground next to a stream. "Petie Piranha!" Mario exclaimed quietly, "Guys, don't wake him up!" The group hurried quietly past Petie, fortunately without waking him up. Petie was one of the monsters that Mario had to fight in his adventure that had been christened Super Mario Sunshine, as he explained to Jessie and Ian.

Later when the sun went down they stopped and set up camp. "Oh, it feels good to be camping again," Jessie said that night as they were sitting by a campfire, "I used to have so much fun camping with my Girl Scout troop."

"Girl Scout?" Peach asked.

"Oh, you don't have it here do you?" Jessie answered, "It was an organization for girls. We did community service and went camping and earned patches and, my personal favorite, sold cook-" Jessie's face showed horror for a moment. Everyone looked around to see what had scared her.

"What?" Mario asked.

"Cookies!" Jessie exclaimed.

"You sold cookies? That's neat, but I don't see why you're so shocked," Yoshi said.

"I was selling cookies when I came back here. I had like three hundred people who had bought from me. I had told them that I would be delivering cookies within the next few days when my aunt gave them to me!" Jessie said.

"So?"

"That was on Monday and Tuesday. I came here Tuesday. There are like three hundred people who I didn't get to give cookies to," Jessie explained.

"Boy, you must have really liked selling cookies," Luigi said, "You make it seem like it was life or death!"

"I mean, all those people! They'll be really mad!" Jessie said.

"Oh, my God! They'll never forgive you for disappearing without a trace! Everyone will hate you because you are gone forever and can't give them their cookies! I mean, all they care about is cookies! I'll bet they don't even notice that you've completely disappeared!" Ian rambled sarcastically.

"I-... I guess you've got a point," Jessie said with a hint of thoughtfulness in her voice and expression. A little while later they went to bed.

The next morning they started off again. Not very long after they started they found the end of the jungle. "The desert?" Jessie, Luigi, Toad, and Peach exclaimed.

"I didn't know we had to go through the desert!" Peach continued, "Did you know, Yoshi?"

"Yeah, I knew," Yoshi replied without a trace of concern in his voice.

"And you didn't think it was important?"

"What're you guys so worried about?" Mario asked.

"Earth to Mario?" Luigi shouted.

"There are whirlwinds in the desert!" Jessie continued.

"Yeah, we could get separated!" Toad added.

"You forget that the whirlwinds run in specific trails. There hasn't been one through this part of the desert yet," Mario answered casually.

"That doesn't mean there won't be!" Jessie exclaimed.

"All right, all right, all right!" Yoshi said loudly, "There's no other way to this place, so you've got two choices: one you can not go to Sarasaland, or two you can cross the desert."

Peach thought for a moment then answered, "I guess we'll have to cross the desert."

"But not without some kind of precaution!" Jessie added.

"Like what?" Ian asked, who had previously been silent because he'd had no idea what a whirlwind was.

"We should decide on a meeting place in case we do get separated," Jessie suggested.

"Okay, where?" Toad asked.

"I think we should probably keep heading east to Sarasaland from wherever we end up," Luigi said, "When you get there, stay until everyone else is there."

"Not that any of this is really necessary," Mario said, "I really think you're all being paranoid."

They all started into the desert. After a while of walking they found an oasis. It was starting to get dark so they decided they would camp out for the night and finish getting through the desert the next day. They didn't do much before they decided to go to bed. In the middle of the night, Jessie woke up. Feeling thirsty, she got out of her tent to get a drink of water. While she stood sipping on some water, gazing at the stars, she shivered as a wind blew through the previously still night. "What?" she murmured. The wind started getting stronger as Jessie started to wake up everyone else.

"Get up!" she shouted into each tent.

"What's with the wind?" Ian shouted over the howling.

"There's a whirlwind coming!" Toad yelled.

Indeed, a swirling funnel, not really like a tornado because it was tiny in size, came billowing toward them. But it looked like it could definitely pick up several people and throw them somewhere far away.

"Run!" Luigi shouted, they all started running away from it, but it continued to gain ground on them. Finally it caught them and they were all sucked into it. Everyone screaming, as they were all swirled around, suddenly they were all thrown outward from it and could feel themselves flying long distances very fast. No one knew where anyone else was...

First chapter! I now leave you for the rest of the fic. Enjoy!


	2. Reunited

Chapter 2: Reunited

Jessie woke up with thoughts racing in circles inside her head. She looked around a little and saw nothing that was familiar to her. She was lying on top of a pile of straw. Sitting up with a little difficulty Jessie realized that she was between two wood-paneled buildings. Beyond her immediate area was a small town, much like an old western town. The sun was already beating down brightly upon her, yet the whole place seemed overshadowed and "gray" somehow. As she stepped onto what appeared to be the main street, Jessie realized that there were many different types of creatures around here.

There were several saloons up and down the street, one of them being to her immediate left. Apparently there were so many creatures because most of them were just visiting. The town was probably just a pit stop or a trading post for the most part. Jessie decided that she should first look around to see if anyone else had landed around there. She walked down the street and saw nothing and no one familiar to her. She decided to go inside one building to see if anyone in there could help her.

"Hello?" she slid uncomfortably in the doorway.

"'Hello' what?" answered a gruff voice from behind the counter. She turned to see a nasty looking little mushroom.

"Uh-" Jessie was unsure of how to answer or what to do next.

"Look, do you have any business to conduct in here?" it asked.

"I don't know..." Jessie's voice trailed off.

"Then get out and don't come back until you do know!" the mushroom snapped and ran out from behind the counter to shoo her out. Jessie hurried out.

"Okay, I guess I just picked the town meanie's shop. No big deal. I'll just find someone else to help," she said to herself. A few buildings down was another shop. When Jessie entered, about the same thing that had happened in the first shop happened. The same thing also happened at the next few places she tried. Jessie was becoming increasingly distraught. And several times when she was inside, creatures could be heard screaming and running around outside.

The last place she went in was a saloon, and it was getting rather dark. "Can I have a room for the night?" she asked.

"Sure thing," answered the bartender, a goomba with an unpleasant voice. She went upstairs and went to sleep. The next morning she went back downstairs where there were many creatures already around the tables socializing.

"Need something?" the goomba asked from behind the bar.

"Um," Jessie said and paused as her belly issued a loud growl.

"I guess that means food," the goomba said.

"I guess..." Jessie answered. The goomba, the only person working there, apparently, slipped back into the kitchen and reappeared a few minutes later with a steaming plate, which he set at the bar.

"This is mine, right?" Jessie asked as she approached it.

"Yup," the goomba replied and went on with his business.

Outside the creatures were running around and screaming again. But Jessie didn't notice. She was too concerned with the "food" in front of her. She poked at the stuff, which appeared just to be a blob of gray Jell-O that had lost a lot of its jiggle. Whenever she poked at it, it rocked back and forth rigidly a couple of times.

Finally she asked, "Uh, what is this?"

"That's the house specialty. Try it," the goomba answered proudly.

Jessie poked at it again and took a very small piece off with her fork. She placed it in her mouth and immediately scrunched her face in disgust. Trying to be polite, she forced herself to swallow at least that bite.

"Ain't it great!" the goomba exclaimed.

Forgetting her manners again, Jessie blurted, "This is disgusting!"

Everyone in the saloon went dead quiet and turned to face her. "You dare to insult the house specialty?" the goomba asked coldly.

Jessie, now feeling very uncomfortable and very, very unsafe answered hesitantly, "I, uh, I mean- it's not exactly the best thing I've ever tasted."

The goomba's anger leaked out in steam through his head as he shouted, "Get the heck out of here, you miscreant!" Jessie got up from her seat and ran out of the saloon into the street.

The next second, Jessie turned around to see, diving down from the sky at her, a very mean and angry look upon its face, the sun! Jessie screamed and jumped out of the way. It flew back into the sky again, circled a few times, and dove at her again. She jumped out of the way again and started running down the street. Unfortunately, in her panic, Jessie failed to notice most of the people who were in her path.

Finally the sun left. But the people who Jessie had run into were furious. They started shouting insults at her. Many started stalking up to her. Sensing the growing danger, Jessie turned on her heel and ran down the alley she had started in the previous day. Many of the creatures stood at the end of the alley, shouting at her. Tears welled in Jessie's eyes as she kept running down the impossibly long alley.

Finally, out of breath, Jessie slumped down against a wall. After a little while she got up again. Realizing it would be crazy to go back to where she was before, Jessie kept walking away from it. After a little more walking Jessie made it to the other end of the alley. As she emerged into the street, everything became bright again. Jessie was very upset and lonely now. Right on her left was a saloon.

Apprehensively, she stepped in through the door. No one really seemed to notice her, but the overall atmosphere was a lot friendlier than before. Besides the bar, tables, chairs, and stairs leading upstairs to the inn, Jessie noticed a stage with several instruments and some microphones on it. The instruments were drums, a violin, a couple of guitars, and a piano. A sign near it had the words written on it, "Feel free to entertain us."

"Too bad Mario and Luigi aren't here. We could really entertain," she muttered to herself. She realized then that she needed her brothers for more than that. They probably could have helped her out during the past couple of days. Jessie realized also that she really missed them at the moment. A knot formed in her stomach, "I think I would do anything to have them here right now."

She climbed the steps onto the stage and sat down at the piano. Music flowed from her fingers. For about a minute, she sat there playing the piano, a tune of her loneliness. After about a minute a mole climbed onto the stage and sat at the drums. He waited for a spot where he could come in and added his music just as Jessie started singing a song from the last world she was in. ((A/N: It's Vanessa Carlton's "Thousand Miles." I had the lyrics here before, but the rules say no song fics because the lyrics don't belong to us. So, now they're gone!))

Eventually a mushroom joined in on violin, and later a koopa troopa on guitar. Finally Jessie and the mushroom finished up the song with the piano and violin. Everyone who had been listening stood up and applauded loudly. Jessie managed a smile and stepped down from the stage, actually a little embarrassed. She sat down at a table near the window and sat thinking for a minute.

"First you want to get away from your family forever, and now you want to be with them all the time, huh? I guess your real family is as good as you expected," a girl who had sat down across from Jessie said.

Jessie answered, "I told you I would find them and whoever my real family was would be way better than those terrible excuses for parents, Nicole-." Jessie's head shot up. A girl with shoulder-length brown hair, dark blue pants, white shirt, light blue vest, and brown shoes sat across from Jessie. "Nicole?" she exclaimed.

Nicole nodded her head with a smile. But the smile disappeared and a sad and somewhat despaired expression plastered itself on her face as she leaned in toward Jessie and wrapped her arms around her neck, "Oh, Jess, I don't know anyone here! I've been lost and alone this whole time! It's scary and I- I- oh, my God, I'm so glad I found you! This is the best moment I've had so far since I got here!" Nicole was crying by now in a mixture of sadness and happiness. Jessie was also starting to cry out of pity for her best friend and joy at having found her here too.

"It's my song too," Nicole whimpered, and then added somewhat jokingly, "I'm so happy I actually found someone here. We'll have to stick together. I mean, we're probably the only ones from the other world here, huh?"

Jessie remembered just then that Nicole was not the only other person there. This probably wasn't the best time though. "Why don't we get a room together and we'll talk there and stuff. It's getting kind of late anyway."

"Okay," Nicole answered. She smiled, "My God, we have so much to talk about!"

Lying in their beds, Jessie and Nicole talked about their time there and how they had come to be where they were. "I woke up in the middle of the night that night and had an urge to look out my window. And I saw the light from the next portal," Nicole told Jessie.

"Me too, so I just got out of bed, got dressed really quick and ran to it," Jessie replied.

"Yeah, same here," Nicole continued, "I had expected, and I'll bet you did too, to see that portal of light. But when I got there and saw the pipe, I wasn't sure I should jump in. But then I decided that it still had the light, so it had to be a portal. So I jumped in. I came out of another pipe in the sky and landed in a jungle. I was stuck in there for a while and learned a little about some of the creatures here. Then I got out and I wandered down a beach for a while getting more experience. Finally I made it to a plain old field and worked my way across it for a while. Finally, after several months, I got here, and I've been here in this town for about a couple weeks."

They lay there in bed for a minute before Nicole added, "We gotta stay together. We're the only ones from the other world. Cougars gotta stick together!"

"Yeah," Jessie answered, "Why don't we go to bed now. Like I told you, I need to start heading east tomorrow." So they went to sleep.

'

"So, you're heading east, huh?" Nicole asked the next morning as they sat eating breakfast, some actual food.

"So are you," Jessie answered.

"Cool," Nicole responded, then added teasingly, "Hey, you've been out of the other world for a few months too, right? Anyone you miss? Like you- know-who maybe?"

"Uh, actually," Jessie started. Nicole looked at her questioningly. "All right, I want to tell you something, but I wasn't sure how. But I think I might have a good way. Just sit right here and listen up," Jessie told Nicole.

Jessie went around the room looking for the mole, the koopa troopa, and mushroom, and, upon finding them, asked them to do another song with her.

They got up on stage and picked up their instruments. The mole started, then the koopa troopa, then the mushroom picked up, and then Jessie started, and she sang another song from the other world ((A/N: Vanessa Carlton's "Prince" for those who care.)).

When the song was done, Jessie went back over to where Nicole was sitting. "I don't get it," Nicole said.

"Mushroom Kingdom, that's where we are right now, if you'll recall, is ruled by a royal family. Until a little while ago Princess Toadstool, or Peach, ruled solely," Jessie explained.

"And what happened a little while ago?" Nicole asked.

"We all fell out of pipes and found Mushroom Kingdom. I found my family, because I landed right outside our house. Then I found him and we found his family," Jessie continued.

"Him?"

"Peach's baby brother, the prince, who is now ruling with her."

Nicole thought that over for a second. Then a mischievous little grin crawled onto her face, "You like him now, don't you?"

Jessie, taken aback, blushed, "Well..."

Nicole laughed, "That's what that song was about!"

"Yeah," Jessie answered failing to hold back her own smile.

"What's his name? Hey! Wait a sec. You said he came out of a pipe too. Do we know him from before?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Who is he?"

Jessie had tried to work her way delicately around it, and she now found herself averting Nicole's gaze. Her eyes were now drawn to the window. She noticed now that the town outside was about a mirror image of the other town, especially in that it had many saloons as well. There was actually one right across the street. In fact, she could see a boy sitting by a window in the one across the street.

"Wait a minute?" she thought, "The only human kids in the kingdom are me, Nicole, and-," out loud, "Ian?"

"Ian?" Nicole repeated.

As though he had heard his name from across the street, Ian looked out his window and saw Jessie standing at the window in the saloon across the street. At about the same time they hurried out the doors, Nicole following closely behind Jessie.

"You landed here too?" they exclaimed in unison.

"This is great! Now we can go to Sarasaland together! I don't have to go alone!" Ian cheered happily.

"No, you certainly don't," Jessie said, smiling as she moved aside for Ian to see Nicole.

"Wait, I thought we were the only human kids in Mushroom Kingdom?" Ian asked.

"Ian, I believe you know Nicole. She also is from here and jumped into the pipe the night we did," Jessie explained.

At the same time Nicole exclaimed, "Ian?" Ian exclaimed, "Nicole?" They all just stood there in the middle of the street soaking in what had just happened. When they finally recovered they all kind of smiled and laughed.

Still laughing slightly, Nicole said, "Well, I guess we're all going to... wherever together."

"I guess so," Ian answered.

"So, let's get going," Jessie added.


	3. Halfway to Fortunately

Chapter 3: Halfway to Fortunately

Some distance away, Mario, Peach, and Yoshi found themselves also in an unfamiliar town. It also was a not-that-nice town, hidden in a forest that they were also unfamiliar with. They had had several unfortunate run-ins with the locals, although, it seemed to be more of a getaway spot for nasty people. They couldn't decide whether it was a positive or negative coincidence, but they ran into Wario in a small house that he kept for the trips that he took there.

"So, you went into the desert and ended up here, huh?" he asked them.

"Yeah," Mario answered.

"Well," Wario said, "You're in a bit of luck anyway. This place is on the eastern side of the desert."

"What? Then how do you get here?" Peach asked.

"I go south, around the desert," Wario answered.

"Really?" Peach replied, shooting a sharp glance at Mario and Yoshi who suddenly looked a little embarrassed.

"Yeah, but I know you're trying to get back to the main path that heads east, right?" Wario added.

"Yeah," Yoshi answered.

"Well, in that case you're in a little bit of bad luck, because there is no actual path to get you there," Wario told them.

"No 'actual' path?" Mario repeated.

"Yeah, well, you get back to it by following some landmarks until you get to it. But there is no beaten path," Wario extended.

"We don't know these landmarks. Do you?" Yoshi asked.

"Yeah," Wario answered slowly, sensing what was coming.

"Could you take us?" Peach asked.

"I knew that was coming," Wario muttered.

"Please?" Peach pleaded.

"All right, fine, whatever. I'll take you. I got nothing else to do here anyway and nothing at home," he answered, "Get your stuff, we'll start right now."

So they all grabbed their things and headed off.


	4. Shoes

I would just like to say that I am SO sorry for leaving anyone hanging. I hit a wrong button, uploading the wrong document, and got my posting privileges suspended. I don't know how long I was supposed to be punished, but I gave it a good month before trying again. Well, to anyone who's interested, here's the rest of the story.

Disclaimer: once again, I own nothing and no one except for Jessie, Ian, and Nicole

Chapter 4: Shoes

"All right, I still don't know this place, but at least it still looks friendly," Luigi remarked to Toad as they wandered into a field. They had both fallen into a forest near each other. Wandering for a few days they had stumbled on a friendly village where the residents pointed them onto the easterly path. After a couple of hours of walking they reached this field.

"Hey, look!" Toad exclaimed, as he pointed toward a hill that rose out of the forest on the other side of the field. At the top of the hill was a castle, somewhat similar to Peach's.

"We must have found Sarasaland!" Luigi exclaimed.

"This is great!" Toad chimed in, "I'll bet it would've taken us a lot longer if that whirlwind hadn't picked us up."

"Yeah, but everyone else probably wasn't as lucky as us. I'll bet we'll be waiting a while for them all," Luigi responded.

They sat down against a tree to rest for a little while. The people in the village they had found sold them some food to take with them. So they took that out and ate while they admired the landscape around them.

"You know that is a pretty castle," Luigi commented.

"It's a lot prettier from afar than up close."

"How do you figure?" Luigi asked.

"That way you can see the hills and trees with it too. But it's nice up close too. Oops!" A shoe fell and hit Luigi in the head.

"Ow!" he blurted and fell over unconscious.

Toad jumped to his feet and looked up into the tree. A girl with auburn hair, a yellow dress, one blue shoe, and a red crown was sitting upon a limb up in the tree.

"I am so, sorry!" she said as she scrambled down the limbs.

"Who are you?" Toad asked, as they bent over Luigi.

"I'm Daisy, Princess of Sarasaland..."


	5. Running

Chapter 5: Running

First thing they did, Jessie, Ian, and Nicole got new gear for their journey. As soon as they started east out of town, Jessie, Ian, and Nicole were in the desert again.

"I guess we've gotta get across the desert no matter what," Ian said. They had taken a while to get ready to go. The sun was starting to go down.

"You know, if we went fast enough, we could probably get across there overnight," Jessie said, "We can run right across, resting a few times. It won't be so bad since it's night and it won't be hot out. This way we can get right across, hopefully without running into any whirlwinds."

After thinking about it for a few seconds Nicole replied, "Sounds good to me."

So they started running across the desert, pacing themselves so that they only had to take about four real breaks. Finally, when the sun was turning the sky pale pink ahead of them, they made it to the other side. A forest and some hills marked the end of the desert. Right there where they were was a town.

They staggered in and found an inn. There they had breakfast and tried to stay awake for a while. Then they got a room and went to sleep. Fortunately, the exertion of running across the desert put them out until the next morning. Then they got up and had a huge breakfast, having missed lunch and dinner the previous day. Then they bought some food to keep them okay until they got to another town. Then they set off into the forest and hills, heading east to Sarasaland.


	6. Lost and Found

Chapter 6: Lost and Found

Mario, Peach, Yoshi, and Wario had stopped for the night. In the early hours of the morning, Wario woke up to go to the bathroom. Several yards from the campsite, Wario found a tree next to some bushes. After finishing his business he turned to walk back to the campsite. But when he took a few steps some rustling in the bushes caught his attention. He turned to see a pair of eyes watching him from within the brush.

Screaming, he ran back to the campsite. The hullabaloo woke everyone else up and they crawled out of their tents.

"What is it, Wario?" Mario asked.

"Something was watching me pee from the bushes!" Wario answered frantically.

"Don't worry, I wasn't going to hurt you. I lost you guys and needed someone to follow back to the campsite," a voice behind Wario said. They all looked to see a gangly dude with brown hair and a black, zig-zaggy mustache in black overalls, a purple shirt, brown shoes, and a purple hat with a purple, upside-down "L" in a white circle on it.

"Who are you?" Mario asked the stranger.

"Waluigi?" Wario asked, staring at the stranger.

"What? You know him?" Peach asked.

"You people never got to meet him. When our parents separated when we were babies, Waluigi got sent somewhere else with my father," Wario said.

"Your parents?" Yoshi asked, "As in both of your parents?"

"Generally brothers have the same parents, yes," Waluigi answered sarcastically.

"So, Waluigi is mine, Luigi, and Jessie's cousin?" Mario asked.

"Oh, you are smart," Waluigi answered.

"Oh, yeah, I can definitely see those two being brothers," Yoshi remarked.

"So, why were you following us?" Wario asked Waluigi.

"I got lost in the woods. Then I saw you guys and I decided I'd follow you out and then show myself," Waluigi explained.

"I guess that means you'll be continuing with us?" Peach asked.

"You are correct, ma'am," he replied.

"All right, just let us pack up camp and we can get going again," Mario said, as they started breaking down camp. When finally they were done, they continued following Wario.


	7. On a Roll

Chapter 7: On a Roll

Luigi groaned as he rubbed his head and sat up in bed. "Bed?" he thought. He looked around the room he was in. Toad was standing next to the bed, which was rather fancy. The room was kind of large, with a high ceiling and several interesting-looking statues decorating it.

"Toad? What happened?" Luigi asked, "Weren't we just leaning on a tree eating lunch?"

"Well, we were, but the royal servants carried you to the palace," Toad explained.

"Oh, this is the castle?" Luigi inquired.

"Yeah," Toad answered.

"So, have you met the king yet?" Luigi asked.

"Actually, he's dead. I rule the kingdom now," said a voice from the doorway. Luigi and Toad looked over to the door and saw Princess Daisy standing on the threshold.

"Wow," Luigi murmured to himself, having never seen the princess before. He thought she was rather attractive, but tried not to show it.

"Luigi, this is Princess Daisy. She's princess of Sarasaland," Toad introduced.

"Just call me Daisy," she told them, "Princess Daisy makes me sound like I'm not just a regular person." The boys nodded their heads. "So, what brings you two to Sarasaland?" Daisy asked.

Toad explained, "Well, we were coming here with Princess Toadstool-"

"You don't actually call her Princess Toadstool, do you?" Daisy asked.

"Uh, no, we call her Peach. Anyway, she's princess of Mushroom Kingdom, and I'm her right-hand man. I'm not sure why she wanted to meet with the king, although, she'll have to discuss it with you when she gets here instead," Toad elaborated.

"What do you mean, 'When she gets here?'" Daisy asked.

"When we were crossing the desert, we got caught in a whirlwind and separated-," Luigi explained.

"Why would you cut across the desert?" Daisy asked.

"Because it was on the way here," Toad answered.

"No, I mean why didn't you just go south, around the desert?" Daisy clarified.

"Pardon?" Toad blurted.

"You mean there was a way around the desert?" Luigi asked.

"Yeah," Daisy answered. "It's crazy to cut through the desert. There are whirlwinds."

"Yeah, we know," Luigi said. He and Toad looked at each other both thinking about Mario and Yoshi and their so-called unavoidable route through the desert. "Anyways, because we cut through the desert and got caught in a whirlwind, Peach and the others are somewhere else trying to get here," Luigi explained.

"The others?"

"Well, usually when Peach travels, or even when she doesn't, something goes wrong, usually her getting kidnapped," Luigi elaborated, "And my brother is like the hero of Mushroom Kingdom, and me and our buddy Yoshi are kind of back up. So Mario, Yoshi, my baby-sister, Jessie, and me were escorting Peach, Ian, and Toad here." At the mention of Jessie and Ian, Daisy's expression showed a bit of what looked like sadness. But it quickly disappeared.

A little later she was showing Luigi to the kitchen so he could get something to eat, Toad having eaten when Luigi was knocked out. "You know, my father and mother visited Mushroom Kingdom about thirteen years ago," Daisy remarked, "They took my sister, she was too young to be without them, but I was fifteen already, so I stayed here."

"Oh, I think I remember that. I was about the same age," Luigi replied, "Peach's dad invited my family to come over. My parents got to meet them, but we had to hang with Peach while Jessie played with Ian and the little girl. We have a picture of them somewhere, I think-"

"Who's Ian? I remember you said you were escorting him with Peach," Daisy asked.

"Yeah, that's Peach's baby-brother," Luigi answered.

"Oh, is he about the same age as Jessie?"

"Yeah, same age. Oh, we had a fighting tournament about a month after Jessie showed up, and she and Ian tied for first. Pretty tough kids."

"When she showed up?"

"Yeah, she and Ian both crawled into a pipe when they were one. There was a pipe outbreak." They walked in silence for a few minutes.

"My sister crawled into a pipe when she was one too," Daisy said.

"Come to think of it," they said at the same time, "It was when the king was in Mushroom Kingdom!"

"That picture!" Luigi exclaimed.

"What picture?" Daisy asked.

"We found Ian at the Smash Bros. Tournament. When we got him home we later identified him as the prince using a picture of Jessie, a little boy we didn't recognize until we found Ian, and another little girl we weren't sure of!" Luigi told her.

"A little girl?" Daisy asked hopefully.

"Yeah!"

"Did she have brown hair?"

"I think so!"

"That's my sister! Since Jessie and Ian just came back do you think it's possible that my sister is back too?"

"Maybe!"

"Have you seen any other girls near your home?"

"No, the only human kids there are Jessie and Ian!"

"Yes-! Wait- no. Darn it!"

"We were on a roll too!" Finally they got to the kitchen. Daisy left Luigi and headed off to take care of princess business.


	8. Same Story, Two Perspectives

Chapter 8: Same Story, Two Perspectives

"Somehow I don't think this was the path that Mario and Yoshi intended," Ian whispered as he stared at the huge chain chomp lying, sleeping in their path. After getting out of the desert, the group had made their way into some forested mountains. Their current path ran between two high rock walls. And, of course, wedged right in between the two walls, right in front of them, was chain chomp.

"At least he's asleep," Nicole whispered, "As long as we don't wake him, we can get by without any trouble."

"But how will we get by it?" Jessie asked. They stared at the rock walls in silence for a few minutes. Jessie saw that there was a ledge above them by about twenty feet. From the looks of it, they could walk on it above chomp, then a few yards past it they could climb down and continue walking.

"Guys!" she whispered, "Look at that ledge." She pointed it out to them.

"But how can we get up there?" Nicole asked.

"We have some rope, but we can't tie it to anything from down here," Ian whispered.

"I can jump up there and find a rock to tie it to. Then I'll drop the rope down and you two can climb up," Jessie suggested.

"Jess! That's at least twenty feet high! How could anyone possibly jump that high?" Nicole asked. Jessie took the rope from Ian.

"You haven't seen her jump yet," Ian whispered to Nicole as her jaw dropped as Jessie leapt up to the ledge.

Jessie quickly found a rock to tie the rope to and did so. Then she dropped the rope down to her friends. Nicole climbed up first, followed by Ian. Then they untied the rope and tiptoed across the ledge. When they got to the end, they jumped down one at a time. Jessie went first. Then Ian went. But when Nicole went to jump down, some rocks slid out from under her feet and she fell down. Taken by surprise, Jessie and Ian didn't get out of the way in time, and Nicole landed on top of them and they all fell into a pile on the ground with a fair amount of noise.

This woke the chain chomp. His eyelids drooped sleepily for a few seconds while the group was getting itself untangled. It growled at them as they turned to face it. They all screamed as they turned on their heel, running from the giant monster. Instinctively, the chain chomp followed them, barking loudly the whole time. It chased them for a good ten minutes before it finally stopped. It tried to move, but couldn't. When the group realized this they turned around to see it.

"What's going on?" Ian asked.

"It reached the end of its chain. We're safe now," Jessie answered.

"Let's get going quickly anyway," Nicole said. So they kept going on, walking quickly away from the chain chomp's loud barking. Or were they walking away from it?

They paused for a moment and Ian said, "Is it just me-"

Nicole interrupted, "Or is that chain chomp-"

Jessie finished, "Getting even louder?"

"Look out! Run!" shouted someone back near where the barking sound was.

They turned to see the chain chomp still chasing them!

"Run!" Jessie shouted.

And run they did. For such an immensely large creature, chain chomps are pretty fast. Finally, when they thought they could run no more, Nicole spotted a cave in the side of the path, cutting into the rock wall. "Get in there!" she instructed her comrades.

So the group ducked into the cave. Just as the last of the three got in the chain chomp caught up. Now it sat barking loudly outside the entrance.

"Well, at least it can't get to us now," Jessie said.

"Yeah, but we don't know if there's anything in here to worry about," Ian added.

"Well we have a chance in here. We know we couldn't do anything about that chain chomp except run," Nicole said.

They turned from the opening to face the back of the cave. After taking a few steps, Ian said, "Hey, what's that?" He was referring to a light coming from the other end of the cave. So they started toward it. Finally they got to another opening in the cave. And when they got out of the cave they found themselves at another trail at the edge of a snowfield. A sign nearby read, "Frappe Snow Land."

"Hey, Mario told me about this. This is a raceway that they used in a go- kart racing tournament," Jessie informed.

"Go-karts? You think maybe they still have them here?" Nicole asked.

"Maybe," Jessie answered, "Why, what are you aiming at?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Ian asked.

"Apparently not obvious enough," Jessie replied.

"Driving go-karts is going to be a lot faster and quite a bit less exhausting," Ian explained.

"That makes sense," Jessie seemed to mull that over, "But how are we going to find them here?" The group looked around. Nicole spun around to see behind them.

"Uh, guys?" drawing their attention to an open garage with several go-karts parked inside.

"Oh."

'

Mario, Peach, Yoshi, Wario, and Waluigi had been trekking through the forest for two days now. As far as Mario could tell, they were no closer to getting on the path east than they were when they landed in those misbegotten woods.

"Wario, are you sure you know where we're going?" he asked about noon one day.

"Of course I do," Wario answered.

"What's the next landmark, maybe we can help keep an eye out for it," Yoshi suggested.

"Uh, no, I think I can manage it myself," Wario responded. Mario and Yoshi shot each other worried glances.

Three hours later when nothing significant had happened, Mario spoke up again, "Wario, have you ever actually used these landmarks to get there before?"

"... Why do you ask?" Wario asked.

"Well, I, just..." Mario stammered.

"You don't think I know where I'm going do you?" Wario accused.

"Actually yeah."

"Why do you say that?"

"Kind of something in my gut."

Peach interjected, "Well, I have my reasons for thinking Wario's lost us."

Wario had to ask, "And what would those be?"

"We passed this tree half an hour ago," Peach replied, pointing to a tree in which she had apparently been keeping tally marks on.

"What are those marks?" Waluigi asked.

"I used a key that Mario dropped to cut a line in the trunk of this tree every time we passed it, on average, every half hour," Peach explained.

"You've been keeping track of my being lost?" Wario asked indignantly.

"You knew we were lost and you didn't tell us?" Waluigi and Yoshi asked.

"... I dropped my key?" Mario asked.

"Yeah, I found it near your tent last night, when we camped right over there," Peach pointed to a small clearing with a circle of stones with ashes inside them.

After pocketing the key that Peach gave him Mario realized, "Wait a minute, I didn't keep any keys. Luigi had them."

After everyone stared at the key for a few minutes, Yoshi finally spoke up, "Then whose key is it?"

"I don't know, but I don't think they would have found it anyways," Wario answered.

"Let's hold onto it. It might come in handy, like if we find its lock," Peach suggested.

"Yeah, maybe we'll be lucky and it turns out to be a skeleton key," Waluigi added.

"Right, but, uh, we're still lost," Mario said.

After thinking for a minute, Yoshi spoke up again, "Why don't we use the sun to go north until we find the path and then follow it east?"

"Where are we trying to go anyway?" Waluigi asked.

"We're trying to go to Sarasaland," Peach answered.

"Oh, that's not hard to find. Why didn't you ask about it before?" Waluigi asked.

"Huh?"

"I was coming from somewhere over there before I got stuck in these woods. All we have to do is go that way until we get to Choco Mountain. Then we climb that to Frappe Snow Land. When we get to the end of that you can see the castle."

"I guess that's what we're doing then," Mario said.

'

A while later, Mario's group was walking through a tunnel in the mountain. Waluigi had led them to this shortcut through the mountain onto the main path. Now they had been walking for a while.

"Are we almost to the end of the tunnel?" Peach asked.

"Just a few more yards if I'm not mistaken," Waluigi answered. And indeed, just up ahead, there was a torch sitting on the wall next to a door.

Wario walked up to the door and tried to push it open, but it wouldn't budge, "What gives?"

"Is it locked?" Mario asked as he came and tried as well.

"Look, there's a keyhole right here," Peach said in reference to a keyhole in the rock beside the door.

"But we don't have the key," Yoshi put in.

"We might," Waluigi said, "Try that key you found before. Maybe we'll be lucky and it'll work."

Peach took out the key and put it into the keyhole. When she turned it a lock clicked. Mario and Wario pushed on the door again and it still didn't open all the way, only a little crack. Mario peered through the opening and saw a chain chomp. Wario was still pushing on the door.

"Wario, stop! There's a chain chomp in front of the door!" he exclaimed but it was too late. The chain chomp realized that they had unlocked him and took off.

The group rushed out the door. Over the beast's barking they could hear several voices farther down, "Is it just me-," "Or is that chain chomp-," "Getting even louder?"

Upon hearing this they all shouted, "Look out! Run!" Fortunately they could hear the people running again.

"That was close," Peach said.

"Sorry, I guess I forgot about him," Waluigi said.

They started walking down the path. Finally they made it to the end of the pass, where they found the chomp now sleeping.

"Great," Wario muttered.

"How are we going to get around him?" Peach asked quietly.

"Look, these walls are rough, we can climb up and over him," Mario suggested. This is what they did and managed not to wake the chomp up.

It was noticeably colder on the other side of the chomp. "The chomp was blocking the cold air currents from Frappe Snow Land while we were on the other side," Waluigi explained. Indeed, on the other side was a rock arch over the path, and on the other side was a snowfield. Looking across the field they could see an open garage.

"I remember this," Mario said.

"Yeah, we raced around here during the Mario Kart Tournament," Peach added.

Staring hard across the field at the garage, Wario asked, "Did another tournament start that I didn't hear about?"

"No, why do you ask?" Mario inquired.

"Cause there are a couple of people getting into some of the go-karts over there," Wario replied.

Everyone looked over to the garage and saw the people Wario was talking about starting to drive off. They took off across the field toward the garage, but the intruders were long gone. Sensing that they might be up to no good, they hopped into go-karts themselves and turned the item-blocks on. Driving off, they grabbed a few items and chased after the perpetrators.


	9. Family Reunion

Chapter 9: Family Reunion

"Wahoo!"

Jessie, Ian, and Nicole were flying over the snowy road. They were getting kind of cold from the wind as they drove on, but they would have been cold walking, and at least this way they would get out of the cold faster. All of a sudden: crash! Nicole's go-kart was up in the air! She clung onto the steering wheel and ended up landing right side up. Jessie and Ian braked to see if she was okay. Nicole drove forward to where they were. But they looked back to see if they could see what had hit her and they saw several go-karts in the distance behind them. One of them shot something red at them. They didn't know what it was until the red shell hit Jessie and she was in the air. At that point they understood.

"GO!" they all screamed and floored it.

At one point they ran into some colorful blocks. They didn't have time to react and ran into them. Suddenly they found that Jessie had a green shell in her lap, Ian had a banana peel and Nicole had an item block like those they had just run into. Ian just dropped his over the side of the kart and Jessie turned around in her seat and threw the shell as hard as she could and watched it skid back towards their pursuers. When they heard a loud crash, they knew it had made contact. Nicole didn't think to drop hers over the side until they had reached the next set of item blocks. By then, their followers had caught up a great deal; they'd obviously driven these go-karts before. They glanced back at just the second that their chasers reached the item blocks Nicole had dropped her item among. One of them hit it and flew up into the air. They realized it must have been fake but continued on anyway.

At almost the end of the track they could see the end of the snowfield and a castle beyond. Jessie and Nicole had both gotten green shells, and Ian had gotten a red one. They all turned around and threw them at their followers. But they also were hit with incoming items. Everyone was in the air at almost the same time. They all landed with a loud pound and were stuck for the usual moment. In which time they got a good look at their pursuers. Nicole would have kept going. But instead she stood up and raised an eyebrow at her friends, who had stopped and stood up, straddling their go-karts.

"Uh-oh," Ian uttered.

"Oh, my God!" Jessie exclaimed, and both their hands flew to their mouths. Three of their chasers had gotten out of their go-karts and were walking quickly toward them.

"Oh, my God," Jessie whispered over and over again, shocked beyond almost anything. Ian kept saying, "Oh, crap," behind his hands, still over his mouth. But they were both trying to stop their smiles.

'

Whomever Mario, Peach, Yoshi, Wario, and Waluigi were chasing had apparently learned how to use the items. Wario had been hit by a green shell thrown by one of them. Peach hit a banana peel. Mario hit the false block. Finally at the end of the track, when they could see beyond the snow to the castle they assumed was where the king lived, they hit the perpetrators again. Waluigi, Wario, and Mario were hit by incoming shells, but Peach and Yoshi kept going toward them. Everyone was now close enough to see who the chasees were. Mario, Peach, Yoshi, and Wario instantly recognized two of them. Mario, Peach, and Yoshi quickly got out of their go-karts and started quickly toward them. They were also shocked.

When they had reached them, the chasees were standing up, straddling their go-karts. At the same time, all five of them exclaimed, "We are so sorry! We had no idea who we were shooting at!" Then they all started laughing and heaped into a big hug.

"I'm so glad you're okay," Mario cried when he'd let Jessie out of a tight grip.

"Yeah," Jessie answered, "Oh, and by the way, Mario and Yoshi..."

"What?" they asked.

"I told you so," she said as she received a low five from Peach.

"I know, none of this would have happened if we'd listened to all of you," Yoshi said.

"Yeah, but we're kind of happy you didn't," Jessie said.

"What?" Mario, Yoshi, and Peach all asked, confused.

Jessie turned around and beckoned Nicole forward. "Guys, this is my friend, Nicole," Jessie introduced them, "Nicole, this is my brother, Mario, the princess of Mushroom Kingdom, Peach, and our friend Yoshi." Then Jessie spied Wario and Waluigi, "Oh, and this is my cousin Wario, whom I have no idea why he's here, and I also have no idea who that is beside him?"

"My name is Waluigi," Waluigi told her, "And if you're Mario's sister then that makes us cousins."

Jessie looked to Mario for an explanation. "Long story short: Wario and Waluigi are brothers who were separated when their parents separated," Mario explained.

"Um, okaaay," Jessie said.


	10. Peach's Business

Chapter 10: Peach's Business

They all were off their go-karts now and had started down the mountainside to the valley below.

"So, I guess that's where we're going, right?" Nicole asked shyly.

"Yeah, Peach has royal business there," Mario told her.

"Oh, what kind of royal business?" Nicole tried to keep up the conversation.

Mario abruptly halted.

Nicole asked, "Was it something I said-?"

"Peach what kind of business are you on? You never told us," Mario asked. Peach didn't answer. Everyone was now looking at her as they continued walking.

"Peach?"

"I can't tell you here," Peach answered shortly. That closed the matter. Peach could be stubborn, and it was apparent this would be something that she'd be stubborn about.

Several hours later the sun was starting to set. They were deep in the forest that surrounded the kingdom now and it was getting dark. So they set up camp. That evening they all related their adventures during their time away. Mario, Peach, and Yoshi were really apologetic when they found out that they had allowed the chain chomp to chase after them. Wario and Waluigi were reserved, as can be expected. The next morning they started off again immediately.

Finally they got to an open field. On the other end was a smaller forest surrounding an impressive castle. Everyone cheered loudly; the journey was almost over. They were so happy they could prance all the way across the field, through the forest, and up to the castle. However, a cloud of fog started rolling in.

"Should we really be walking in this?" Peach asked.

"The castle is right through this fog and on the other side of the field," Mario said. "If we stop now, it will add a whole 'nother day to our journey. And I am ready to get to that castle now."

So they trekked forward. And it was now, of course, that the exertions of the past few days caught up with them.

"Guys, are you feeling really tired?" Yoshi asked.

At that moment, everyone fell rearward onto their backs, asleep.

'

When they awoke most of them blinked their eyes a couple times to get rid of their dazedness. When they finally realized that they had been tied to each other and leaning against a large rock, they became aware of their situation. Some twenty to thirty creatures had surrounded them. They weren't very nice looking creatures either.

"We warned you princess!" one of them exclaimed in an unpleasant voice. He stepped forward and Jessie immediately recognized him as the goomba whose inn she stayed at in the distasteful town she'd landed in. "You humans were supposed to stay out of our town! We gave you fair warning when she came around!" He gestured toward Nicole, who had the same horrorstruck face as Jessie. "But then the other one showed up too and made a huge mess of Main Street!"

Jessie wanted to say something, but she had no clue what. It was true she had been run out of the town by that evil sun-thing and inadvertently caused a lot of damage on Main Street. But it's not like she knew she wasn't supposed to be there. And she doubted if Nicole had known either.

"Listen! You're making a mistake!" Peach exclaimed. "We didn't even know this girl existed! She wasn't a member of our kingdom! That's why Jessie ended up there! We were coming to tell-!"

"We don't wanna hear it!" a mushroom cut her off. Several goombas, mushrooms, koopa troopas, and others murmured in agreement.

"So what exactly are you gonna do about it?" Mario asked.

"You people destroyed our town, so we're gonna destroy your castle!" the goomba proclaimed. The others cried out in agreement and started on their merry way toward Sarasaland's castle.

They left a few behind to guard Mario and the gang. They were congregated about a hundred feet away. As soon as they were out of earshot, Yoshi whispered to Peach, "Why didn't you tell us what this was about? We could've avoided this altogether!"

"Don't hold me responsible!" she defended. "If anyone we can blame Mario!"

"What?" Mario exclaimed.

"If you hadn't insisted that we go through that fog, which I suspect was knock-out gas, then we wouldn't have passed out and gotten captured!" Peach explained, whispering.

"Yeah, but they probably wouldn't have planted the knock-out gas for us if Jessie hadn't messed up their Main Street after they had sent us a warning not to let another person there!" Mario tried to defend.

"Well-," Jessie stuttered. "Well, if Nicole hadn't set the precedent then it wouldn't have mattered."

"What?" Nicole exclaimed. "How are you gonna blame me?"

"I dunno, I was just following suit," Jessie said deprecatingly.


	11. Evacuation

Chapter 11: Evacuation

Luigi, Toad, and Daisy were all sitting in the drawing room that afternoon. Toad and Daisy were involved in an engrossing conversation while Luigi sat vaguely following it. Several times he looked out the window. The view was spectacular. At one point, however, something odd caught his eye.

"What's with the fog?" he asked. Daisy and Toad stopped their conversation short and walked over to the window to find out what he was talking about.

"What are you talking about?" Daisy asked.

"There's fog in that one part of the forest, but nowhere else," Luigi said, pointing to a white cloud that had settled in a part of the forest across the field.

"I dunno," Daisy said. "It's certainly never happened before."

They all went back to their business. Some time later, however, several of the servants came running into the room.

"What? What is it?" Daisy asked.

"There's a group of monsters from Gray Town coming toward the castle!" one of them exclaimed. They hurried over to the window, and, sure enough, they were advancing right for the castle.

"What do they want?" Daisy asked.

"They want to destroy the castle!" the servant answered.

"What?" the three exclaimed.

"Come, your highness, we must get you out of the castle!" another servant cried, and started to lead the way out.

It seemed to take forever, but they finally made it to the kitchens and left through that door, being as the front door would be too risky. Once outside, they used the cover of the forest to get around and to the other side of the field. Many of the other servants had already escaped, and others had followed them out. There were others who had stayed to try to defend the castle. Daisy, Luigi, Toad, and a few others continued on their way toward the path that would take them to the nearest town.

When finally they found it, they started toward town. But it didn't take long for them to get a call from further down the trail. Several people were hurrying down the path in their direction.


	12. Facial Expressions and Complicated Escap...

Chapter 12: Facial Expressions and Complicated Escapes

"We need to get to the castle and warn the king!" Peach whispered. He doesn't know they're coming!"

"No talking!" one of the koopa troopas guarding them shouted. Peach was instantly quieted. The guards went back to disregarding them, but they still knew they couldn't talk.

Peach leaned forward and looked at Mario and gave him a questioning look, asking him what to do. Mario gave her a questioning look in return and shrugged his shoulders, answering that he did not know. Then he looked to everyone else, and they gave him the same look. They all sat thinking for a minute. Suddenly, Ian's eyes lit up and he leaned forward and looked at Jessie excitedly. Several of them raised an eyebrow as Jessie responded with another questioning look.

Ian wasn't sure how to do this. He turned his face into an expression of deep concentration. Jessie still looked at him inquisitively. Ian sat for a moment and tried to think. He then pointed to his head and mocked getting free. Jessie mouthed, "What?" After a few seconds Ian picked up a small twig and waved it around like a weapon. Jessie started to mouth, "What?" again but Ian exclaimed loudly, "Sword, for crying out loud! Use your brain!"

"I thought I said, 'no talking!'" the koopa troopa shouted. "I ain't gonna tell ya again!"

It didn't matter though. Jessie's expression finally changed to one of understanding. She now used her brain... literally. The rope slowly untied and they were all free. They sat there very quietly, though, as the rope snaked its way over the ground and silently made a huge circle around their guards. The ends then came together and tied into a slipknot. The circle then raised into the air. As soon as the creatures saw it and jumped up in surprise, the slipknot pulled tight very quickly, closing the circle around them and trapping them.

"Hey! How'd you get free?" they all shouted.

"Long story short, my brain's a bit more powerful than yours," Jessie said as the end of the rope rose into the air and tied around a tree branch, suspending the creatures in the air.

"Bye! Ta-ta!" the gang called as they ran down the trail.

Waluigi called up hopefully to Jessie and Mario in the front, "Does that run in the family?"

"Sorry, no, that's just me!" Jessie answered as they kept running down the trail. After a few minutes they could see two familiar figures, followed by several others, running down the trail toward them.

"Hey! Toad! Luigi! Hey!" they all shouted. Luigi and Toad recognized them and called back.

"Guys! The castle's under attack!" Luigi told them as soon as they were close enough.

"We know! That's why we were coming! We wanted to stop those things from getting to the castle and destroying it, or at the very least warn the king," Peach answered. Luigi and Toad then noticed the two newbies.

"Who're they?" Luigi asked.

"Simply put, the tall dude, Waluigi, is Wario's brother and our cousin, and this girl, whom I found near where the whirlwind dropped me, is my friend, Nic-."

Suddenly they heard the sound of several very loud fuses.

"Oh, crap! They're using bob-ombs!" Mario exclaimed.

"Why would they want to destroy my castle?" Daisy asked.

"Your castle?" Yoshi asked.

"Guys, this is Princess Daisy. Her parents, the king and queen, are dead. She's the ruler now, and she doesn't want to die too!" Toad said very quickly. They could hear the meanies and the servants running from the castle, so they took off too. Without warning, the bob-ombs exploded, and the debris was sent flying into the air. They all stopped running. Mario covered Peach, Luigi covered Daisy, and Yoshi covered all three of the kids while Toad hid behind a tree and the Wario brothers stood there and looked on.

When it was all over, they heard the meanies shouting in triumph. A few minutes later their footsteps were heard making their way back toward the gang. The gang cut through the woods to avoid being seen and found Daisy's servants.

"What's the damage?" she asked one of them.

"Your highness, the whole castle is destroyed, not to mention a lot of the surrounding area," the servant answered.

"Darn," Daisy muttered. "That castle's been standing for several centuries and they destroyed it in several minutes."

"What will you do?" Luigi asked.

"I don't know," Daisy answered sullenly. "Nothing like this has ever happened..." Everyone stood there either staring at Daisy or their feet.

Finally one of the servants spoke up, "Your highness, what will happen to us."

"Whatever you want," Daisy told them.

"You mean-?"

"Yes, you can do what you will with your lives."

"But what about you?"

There was another long silence.

"She can stay in the castle with us for a while, can't she, Peach?" Ian offered

"That's an excellent idea, Ian" Peach said. "Princess Daisy, does that sound good to you?"

"That sounds wonderful!" Daisy exclaimed. "Thank you so much!"

"Of course, it's the least we can do," Peach said.


	13. Older Siblings in General

Chapter 13: Older Siblings in General

"It's stereotyping, and I resent it!" Jessie protested. It was the first night on the way home and they had already made it to a town. They had gotten a suite for all of them to use and the boys were insisting that the ladies use the beds. "It implies that women have a problem with sleeping on the ground! I know I've spent at least three times as much time sleeping on the ground as all of them combined!"

"Jessie! Cool it, for crying out loud!" Nicole exclaimed. "If you've slept on the ground so much then you should be happy for a nice bed! Geeze!" She and Jessie were sharing one of the three bedrooms while Peach and Daisy each had one of their own. They both climbed into the bed and pulled up the covers.

"It's still insulting," Jessie said as they turned off the lights.

"We were just trying to be considerate! It's called common courtesy!" Luigi defended to the guys. They murmured in agreement.

"Common courtesy my rear-end!" Jessie called from hers and Nicole's room ("Shut up, already!" they heard Nicole say.)

The boys all looked at each other. "One thing you gotta learn about Jessie: she starts an issue, she finishes an issue," Ian told them.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jessie shouted ("Give it a friggin rest!" Nicole exclaimed.).

"See?" Ian whispered. They turned out the lights and went to bed then.

'

The next day they bought a rope and tied themselves together while they crossed the desert (they did not want to be separated again). That night they camped out on the edge of the desert and jungle. Then the next day after that they made it to Wedding Hill again. They got a suite in that inn too.

That night they all sat at the table in the dining room, eating dinner. Jessie was feeling antsy because she'd realized earlier that no one had said anything about Nicole. She kept stealing glances at her friend and at everyone else at the table. They usually caught her eye and looked away again really quick. Finally Jessie had waited long enough.

"All right, that's it!" she exclaimed slamming her cutlery to the table.

"Jessie, what's up with you?" Ian asked.

"I'll tell what," she said. "The only mention of Nicole's being new was when I introduced her to everyone. Does no one else realize that she, Ian, and me all appeared here out of pipes? That means she has to be the long- lost relative of someone or another too! We could most certainly be giving this some thought."

"It's not like we had any way to be telling anything. We don't have any of the resources we did when we connected Ian to Peach," Mario said.

"There's still much that can be discussed," Jessie said.

"I gotta agree with Jess on this one," Ian said. "You guys remember how I got when I was just stuck at your house. Eventually I had to go out and look for my family. Don't you think Nicole will want to do that too?"

"Yes, but there is still nothing much we can do right now," Yoshi said.

"You can always plan for the future," Jessie said.

"She has a fair point," Peach admitted.

"Nicole, do you want to add to any of this?" Ian asked.

"Only that I really want to find my family ASAP, and I'm not in any way opposed to talking about finding them right now," Nicole answered.

"And right now is possible," Ian said.

"You've put it off for days," Jessie said.

"I would really like to get this done so I don't get to the point Ian did," Nicole said.

"Yeah, you remember how that got," Jessie said.

"It's getting kind of late," Peach said. "We've got another day's walk ahead of us, don't we?"

"She's right," Luigi added. "We should get some rest and wait until we get home and have the time to talk about this."

"But-," the kids started to protest.

"Now," Mario said. "If you can't recognize that you need to rest for a hard-day of walking then-."

"We can make a bedtime rule for when we're on journeys," Peach finished.

The kids rolled their eyes and grudgingly went with everyone else upstairs to the suite, where they all immediately went to bed.

'

The next day they finished the last leg of the journey. During that time, they decided that Daisy could stay with them in the castle and help them run the kingdom. That night they finally made it back to Toadstool Town. Peach, Ian, Daisy, and Toad went back to the castle, Wario and Waluigi went to Wario's house, and Mario, Luigi, Jessie, Yoshi, and Nicole went back to the Pipe House.

The day after that, everyone (excluding Wario and Waluigi, of course) gathered at the Pipe House to discuss Nicole's situation. "How are we going to do this?" Mario posed when they were all situated in the living room.

"Well, do you think maybe we should go about this the same way we did when Ian showed up?" Jessie suggested.

"What, you mean leave to look for her family, they figure it out while we're gone, and then disappear before they can tell us?" Ian joked.

"Ian," Jessie muttered and smiled and rolled her eyes.

"And then you can come save us and inevitably conquer in your first try what took the rest of us months?" Mario continued humorously.

"Mario," Jessie said a little louder, it was less amusing this time.

"Better yet, we could call up Bowser and tell him we might have another member of the royal family!" Yoshi added. Those three were cracking up.

"Guys!" Jessie cried, it was no longer funny. "C'mon! This is serious-."

"Wait a second!" Luigi exclaimed. "What if she is?"

"What?" That certainly shut the boys up. Luigi thought for a moment.

"Daisy, why didn't we think of this before?" Luigi asked her.

"Think of what?" Daisy asked.

"Don't you remember what we talked about back at your castle?" Luigi asked.

"You mean-?" Daisy started, but then realized something for herself. "Oh, my god! Why didn't we think of that before? Why didn't I make that connection?"

"What are you two talking about?" Mario inquired.

"Luigi, show me that picture really quick!" Daisy directed. They both leapt out of their seats and Luigi showed her the picture on the wall of Jessie, Ian, and the little boy and girl.

"Is that-?" Luigi asked.

"Yes! That's her!" Daisy exclaimed.

"What's with you?" Ian asked.

"And it's her!" Luigi exclaimed pointing toward Nicole.

"What is going on?" Nicole shouted.

Daisy ran over to Nicole and threw her arms around her. Tears of joy were flowing down her cheeks. "Luigi, what are you not filling us in on?" Jessie asked her brother.

"Let's just say that this room contains one prince and three princesses," Luigi answered. Jessie got up to look at the picture Luigi had shown Daisy.

"What are you talking abou-?" Jessie started, but she saw what in the picture had caused such excitement. She gasped. "Daisy said that was her little sister?" she confirmed.

"Yes!" Luigi exclaimed.

"But that's-!" Jessie.

"I know!" Luigi replied.

"Oh, my god!" Jessie squealed.

"WHAT IS GOING ON?" Ian shouted over everyone else.

"Can someone tell me why Daisy is squeezing the life out of me?" Nicole gasped. Daisy loosened her embrace.

"Guys, do you remember that picture of me and Ian as babies that we used to ID Ian?" Luigi asked the room.

"Yes," everyone but Nicole ("No.") answered.

"Does anyone remember there being the two other little kids besides Jessie and Ian?" Luigi asked.

"Vaguely," Mario answered.

"Oh, screw it, everyone come look at the picture!" Jessie commanded. "Daisy has positively identified this kid as her little sister."

They all got out of their seats and moved over to where Jessie and Luigi were standing. They looked at the picture and then looked quickly at Nicole.

"That's Nicole!" Peach exclaimed.

"What are you saying?" Yoshi asked.

"Think, guys," Jessie said. "If Daisy recognizes that as her sister and we recognize it as Nicole, then what does that mean?"

"...I'm Daisy's sister?" Nicole exclaimed after a moment.

"Yes!" Jessie answered.

"Oh, my god!" Nicole cried, and grabbed at Daisy, squeezing her in the same way that Daisy had squeezed Nicole. Everyone else was cheering.

"Wait a second," Nicole said suddenly, holding Daisy at arm's length. "Daisy's a princess."

"Yes?" Ian answered.

"And I'm Daisy's sister," Nicole added.

"Yes," Jessie answered.

"So- what does that ma- I mean- Am I a- uh- am I a-...princess?" Nicole stammered.

"Hey! You sound just like me when I found out I was a prince!" Ian laughed. "Funny!"

"Oh, man!" Nicole murmured. "Does this mean I'm gonna live in the castle and be royalty and stuff too?"

"Absolutely," Peach answered.

'

That evening Princess Peach, Prince Ian, Princess Daisy, and Princess Nicole returned to the castle with Toad. Yoshi went home too. And the Mario family went back to normal. They all sat on the couch and stared into space for a little bit.

"You know," Mario said suddenly, "It might be wise for us to simply carry around copies of that picture in our back pockets so that we will be able to identify that last little boy as soon as we see him."

Luigi and Jessie nodded their heads in approval. Then Jessie thought for a moment.

"Wait, there is one other boy, isn't there!"

That too is another story.

'

The End! How'd you like? Yeah, I probably won't write, or if I do I won't post, about the stuff they do between now and the next story. Just a Mario Party or two. Anyway... Review please! I've only gotten two reviews total for my two Mario fanfics. This makes me very sad, not to mention angry. So if you read and don't review then you will deal with the Brownies, because they are mere weeks away from completion of their current mission.

Anyway, look out for my next story! It's called "Extended Family!" I have the first few chapters written but the rest will be posted as it is written. This makes me happy because now I will have a much better reason for not posting stuff as frequently. Anyway, look out for and read it. Laters for now!


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